Watching for the miracles in our paths…the little ones Can Lead to the big ones.

While we were up in Utah settling Lucy, and also Claire back in college, Grace and I had the opportunity one night to go on a walk. Just the two of us. There was just the tiniest hint of crispness in the air and Fall was starting to creep down the mountains. Grace is good at questions, and as we walked, she asked if I had experienced any big miracles in my life.

I loved that question. Because I was coming right fresh from so many miracles dropping Lucy off at school. From her smiling roommates I had prayed my guts out for, to the fact that my sister Saren had given her such great advice on dorm location, (and that she actually took it!). It was a miracle that we found the disability center in Logan in the first place. There were miracles just spilling out from that recent experience. Was there also some heartache? Some really tough discussions? Some helplessness? You bet. But that didn’t erase the gems of miracles that popped up right and left. Buoying us when we needed it.

Grace acknowledged that yes, those were miracles for sure. But she prodded, wanting more.

Like, what about BIG miracles. Had I had any of those? And as we talked and walked I remember thinking that sometimes the little miracles end up being the very big ones. Like that little miracle of thinking to myself one day all those years ago, “I might actually like that guy” when Dave sat at my college apartment reading my Romanian Book of Mormon one afternoon. I know that seems so silly, but the fact that that thought just popped into my mind: give this guy a chance, created a miracle. And I think about the ripples of that little miracle, looking back on our life together, our kids, our mutual willingness to keep choosing each other over and over. Yes, the little miracles often sprout wings and become the big ones.

Grace’s “little” miracle to choose to serve a mission smack-dab in the middle of COVID? Oh the ripples of that have turned big too. The little promptings that sometimes come right when we need them. The moments of connection with an unruly teenager. The friend that shows up right when we need them most. Or sometimes it’s the stranger who shows up. All those little miracles add up.

Sure, life is so full of ups and downs. Some of those downs leave us hanging on by our fingernails.

But the miracles are still there, sometimes glimmering in the rubble.

Sometimes we just need to be on the lookout to recognize them.

And when we see them, may we grasp them tight. Give them a name and carve out a place for them to stay in our hearts. Cradle them as precious and watch them grow: because many of the “little” ones will turn into mighty ones.

If we notice.
We are in charge of that.

What miracles have you seen in your life lately? May we all be on the lookout.
XOXO